Does It Hurt to Die — Poul Anderson

A terrorist attack on a church in Cape Town kills twenty people. Jannie de Villiers, a well-known liver transplant surgeon avoids death, but is seriously wounded. Two weeks later while recovering at home, Jannie de Villiers is mysteriously murdered. With too many inexplicable circumstances surrounding her husband's death Renata takes her four-year-old son Christian to live in Australia.